How to manually delete iCloud Backups

iCloud backups are a great way to ensure you don’t lose important data in an unruly event. But iCloud only offers 5GB of free storage to everyone as an introductory service. And sometimes, as it backs up your iPhone daily, it gets a little crowded in the cloud up to the point when iCloud doesn’t have space to back it up any further.

You can always buy extra iCloud storage for as low as $0.99 per month. But what gives? iPhones, iPads, or iPods are personal devices that tag along with us throughout the day. They know most of our secrets and hold a plethora of our dearest memories.

Thus, backing them up every now and then becomes a priority. And while iCloud makes backing up an iPhone, iPad, or iPod extremely simple, it’s still a bit limiting. Especially so, when you have more than one device associated with the same iCloud account.

There’s one thing, though, that you can do to get around that limitation without spending a single penny—delete old iCloud backups.

By deleting old iCloud backups, you are letting iCloud back up a newer snapshot of your iPhone. It’s updated and contains all the latest photos, documents, and app data that the old backup did not have. But it’s extremely essential that you do not forget to create a new backup in its place.

Here’s how to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

You can also select what you want to back up the next time. This way, you can leave out stuff from your backups that are inessential and consume a chunk of storage space.

Here’s how you can customize your iCloud backup.

Here’s how to delete iCloud backups manually from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod:

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Head to device Settings.

Tap on [Your Name]

Tap on iCloud.

Tap on Manage Storage.

Tap on Backups.

Tap on the device you want to customize among a list of devices associated with your Apple ID.

Tap on Delete Backup.

When prompted, tap on Turn Off & Delete.

This will do the job for you and immediately free up a ton of storage space on iCloud. However, note that it will also turn off automatic iCloud backups. Here’s how to re-enable them.

Remember that deleting backups is not an ideal option and only must be done when you’re out of storage. It’s also recommended that you back up your device to more than one location. In this case, to iCloud as well as locally to a computer. This ensures that you don’t lose your data in case you need to delete backups over from iCloud.